Jon Jon Briones | |
---|---|
Born | Ernesto Cloma Briones Jr. August 7, 1965 Quezon City, Philippines |
Citizenship |
|
Occupation | Actor |
Spouse | Megan Johnson (m. 1996) |
Children |
|
Ernesto Cloma Briones Jr., [1] known as Jon Jon Briones (born August 7, 1965), [2] is a Filipino-American actor best known for his work in musical theatre. He played the Engineer in the original casts in the West End revival of Miss Saigon in 2014, for which he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and reprised the part on Broadway in 2017.
While an engineering student in the Philippines, Briones became involved with the original 1989 London production of Miss Saigon . Briones had a friend who was a producer in the Philippines, who asked Briones to help "facilitate an audition" for the Cameron Mackintosh team who were holding auditions in the Philippines for Miss Saigon. In addition to helping with the organization of the auditions, Briones himself auditioned for and then became a member of the ensemble. [3]
He has been involved with various touring productions of Miss Saigon, as a swing and covering other roles, finally playing the Engineer. In 2014 he joined the original cast of the Miss Saigon West End revival, playing the Engineer. [4] He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing this role and won the Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Actor in a Musical. [5] [6] He remained in the role until the production closed on February 27, 2016. [7]
In 2017, Briones transferred with the production to Broadway at the Broadway Theatre. Previews started on March 1, 2017, with an official opening on March 23. [8]
On April 30, 2019, Briones received the Visionary Award from East West Players during their annual awards dinner and silent auction. [9] The award is given to celebrate individuals that are able to raise the visibility of Asian Pacific Americans through their work. [10] During his acceptance speech, Briones said that his "vision is that we change hearts and minds in Hollywood and in the theatre community so they see that we have a voice and a story – beautiful stories – to tell, and we are the ones who can and should tell it." [11]
In 2018, he appeared in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as Modesto Cunanan, father of Gianni Versace's murderer, Andrew Cunanan, and in American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Ariel Augustus.
In 2020, Briones appeared in the Netflix drama series Ratched , [12] portraying Dr. Richard Hanover. [13]
In 2022, Briones appeared in the second season of Star Trek: Picard. His daughter, Isa Briones, is a main cast member on the series.
In March 2024, Briones joined the cast of Hadestown on Broadway, portraying Hermes. He starred opposite his daughter, who made her Broadway debut as Eurydice. [14]
Briones was born in Quezon City, Philippines and became a United States citizen in 2010. [15] In 1996, he married Megan Johnson. They have two children: Isa Briones (b. 1999) and Teo Briones (b. 2005). [16] His wife and both children are also actors. [17]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2007 | Potluck | Short film | |
2008 | Proud American | Dawn's Father | |
An Immigrant Girl's Journey | Paulo Alcedo | Short film | |
Brown Soup Thing | Uncle Jon Jon | ||
2010 | Breathe | Rhadamanths | Short film |
2012 | Jolly B. Fierce | Edward Biagan | Short film |
Nico's Sampaguita | Raul | Short film | |
Just an American | Father of Dawn Trang | ||
2014 | Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage | Asian Genie | |
Blood Ransom | Father Mena | ||
2016 | Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary | The Engineer | |
2018 | Model Home | Mr. Fan | |
2022 | Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration | Maurice | TV film special |
2023 | The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Joseph | |
TBA | Patron Saints of Nothing | Tito Maning |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2003–2004 | Las Vegas | Cosme Caliyag | 2 episodes |
2007 | Moonlight | Party Goer | Episode: "Out of the Past" |
2008 | Sons of Anarchy | Asian Elvis | Episode: "Pilot" |
2009 | Monk | First Mercenary | Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Magician" |
2010 | Miami Medical | Technician | Episode: "Diver Down" |
Law & Order: LA | Brant Ross | Episode: "Hollywood" | |
2011 | Southland | Rama | Episode: "Graduation Day" |
2013 | The Mentalist | Mr. Lam | Episode: "My Blue Heaven" |
2014 | Bones | Adrian Lingao | Episode: "Big in the Philippines" |
2017 | Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders | Lama Vajra | Episode: "Abominable" |
2018 | The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story | Modesto Cunanan | 2 episodes |
Designated Survivor | Prime Minister Khallou | Episode: "Bad Reception" | |
American Horror Story: Apocalypse | Ariel Augustus | 3 episodes | |
2019 | Better Things | Himself | Episode: "The Unknown" |
All Rise | Daniel Mendoza | Episode: "How to Succeed in Law Without Really Re-Trying" | |
2020 | Ratched | Dr. Richard Hanover | Main role |
2021 | Trese | Hank | Voice role [18] |
2022 | Star Trek: Picard | Confederation Magistrate | Episodes: "Penance" and "Assimilation" |
Transformers: EarthSpark | Alex Malto | Voice role [19] | |
2023 | Class of '09 | Gabriel | Main cast [20] |
Miss Saigon is a sung-through stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madama Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, is a Filipino singer and actress. Known primarily for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on Broadway and in the West End. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1990 and the Order of Lakandula in 2007, and she was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
Andrew Scott Rannells is an American actor. He is best known for originating the role of Elder Kevin Price in the 2011 Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. He received his second Tony nomination in 2017 for his performance as Whizzer in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. Other Broadway credits include Hairspray (2005), Jersey Boys (2009), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), Hamilton (2015), The Boys in the Band (2018), and Gutenberg! The Musical! (2023). For his performance in the Off West End production of Tammy Faye, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.
Hunter Parrish Tharp is an American actor and singer. He is known for playing the role of Silas Botwin in the Showtime series Weeds and for his performances in the Broadway productions of Godspell in the role of Jesus and Spring Awakening as Melchior.
Lillias White is an American actress and singer. She is particularly known for her performances in Broadway musicals. In 1989 she won an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway musical Romance in Hard Times. In 1997 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for portraying Sonja in Cy Coleman's The Life. She was nominated for a Tony Award again in 2010 for her work as Funmilayo in Fela Kuti's Fela!.
Jordan William Fisher is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He began his career with recurring roles on several television series, including The Secret Life of the American Teenager in 2012 and Liv and Maddie from 2015 to 2017. He also had supporting roles in the television films Teen Beach Movie (2013), Teen Beach 2 (2015) and Grease Live (2016), The Flash (2021-2022) and starred in Rent: Live (2019).
Corey Daniel Stoll is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series House of Cards (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013, and Dr. Ephraim Goodweather on the FX horror drama series The Strain (2014–2017). From 2020 to 2023, he portrayed Michael Prince, a business rival to protagonist Bobby Axelrod, in the Showtime series Billions. He was also a regular cast member on the NBC drama series Law & Order: LA (2010–2011).
Peter L. Wittrock Jr., known professionally as Finn Wittrock, is an American actor who began his career in guest roles on several television shows. He made his film debut in 2004, in Halloweentown High before returning to films in the 2010 film Twelve. After studying theater at The Juilliard School, he was a regular in the soap opera All My Children from 2009 to 2011, while performing in several theatrical productions. In 2011, he performed in playwright Tony Kushner's Off-Broadway play The Illusion and made his Broadway debut in 2012 as Happy Loman in the revival of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, directed by Mike Nichols.
Reeve Jefferson Carney is an American actor, musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for originating the role of Orpheus in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. He also played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Dorian Gray in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and Riff Raff in the Fox musical television film The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again.
Alex Gaumond is a Canadian actor, singer, songwriter and filmmaker best known for his involvement in West End theatre. He plays series regular gendarme Caron, the chief of police in Sainte Victoire, in the Channel 5 television series The Madame Blanc Mysteries, starring Sally Lindsay.
Alison Wright is an English actress. She is best known for her starring role as Martha Hanson on the FX period spy drama series The Americans (2013–2017), for which she received critical acclaim and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2017. She has also acted in the Ryan Murphy limited series Feud: Bette and Joan (2017) and Hollywood (2020).
Hadestown is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her.
The Ferryman is a 2017 play by Jez Butterworth. Set during The Troubles, it tells the story of the family of a former IRA volunteer, living in their farmhouse in rural County Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1981.
Eva Maria Noblezada is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in theatre, starring in musicals in the West End and on Broadway. Her accolades include a Grammy Award and two Tony Award nominations.
The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, more commonly known as the Jimmy Awards, are awards given annually to recognize musical theatre performances by high school students in the United States. Two main awards are given each year, Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor.
Ratched is an American psychological thriller television series created by Evan Romansky, developed by Ryan Murphy and starring Sarah Paulson in the title role of Nurse Mildred Ratched. A prequel to Miloš Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it depicts the life of Mildred Ratched prior to the events portrayed in the film, albeit in a different state. Ratched received a two-season series order. The first season premiered on Netflix on September 18, 2020. In August 2022, Paulson said she was unsure if the second season was still happening. In February 2024, Ratched was cancelled after one season, with Paulson also confirming the fate of the series.
Isabella Camille Briones is an American actor and singer. A veteran of musical theatre, she rose to prominence for her starring roles in the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard (2020–22), including Soji, an android "daughter" of Data. In 2023, she starred as Margot Stokes in the Disney+/Hulu series Goosebumps.
Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga has appeared in international theatre productions, television shows, films, and video games. She made her professional debut on stage in the 1978 Repertory Philippines production of The King and I. She went on to appear and star in productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1978), Fiddler on the Roof (1978), Annie (1980), The Sound of Music (1980), The Rose Tattoo (1980), and The Bad Seed (1981) in Manila. In 1981, Salonga made her film debut as Lisa in the Filipino comedy Tropang Bulilit. Salonga continued performing in theatre productions in Manila, including The Goodbye Girl (1982), The Paper Moon (1983), a revival of Annie (1984), and The Fantasticks (1988). From 1983 to 1985, Salonga hosted her own television variety show entitled Love, Lea. In 1986, she also appeared as a Thursday group member on the television series That's Entertainment. Throughout the 1980s, she also appeared in the Filipino films Like Father, Like Son (1985), Ninja Kids (1986), Captain Barbell (1986), Pik Pak Boom (1988), and Dear Diary (1989).
Nicholas Barasch is an actor and performer best known for his award-nominated performance in She Loves Me and for playing Orpheus in the North American tour of Hadestown.